IEUST 12

Chapter 12

“Keep your field of vision wide. Make sure to check the trees, too.”

Chaeho’s calm voice cut through the dense forest path.

The party leader walking at the front nodded and adjusted his grip on his shield.

“Like Hunter Lee Chaeho said, everyone stay alert. C-rank forest dungeons are open on all sides, so you never know when you might get ambushed.”

The damp smell of earth and the strong scent of grass stung their noses. Thickly intertwined branches blocked out the sunlight, leaving the inside of the dungeon as dim as early evening. This was another party Chaeho had joined as a one-day temporary mercenary. One tank, two damage dealers, one healer, and Chaeho.

Because of their small numbers, their defensive line would inevitably become thin if a large number of monsters suddenly poured out.

Rustle.

A strange sound suddenly came from the bushes on the right.

It wasn’t the sound of leaves brushing against each other in the wind. It was the sound of something heavy stepping on the ground and springing away.

Chaeho stopped walking and placed a hand on his sword hilt.

“Right side.”

The moment his words fell, three gray shadows burst through the bushes.

Wolf-type monsters about the size of adult men—Blade Wolves.

“Grrrr!”

“Monsters ahead! Form up!”

The party leader shouted as he rushed forward. The sword-wielding damage dealer followed closely behind him.

Blade Wolves weren’t particularly overwhelming in terms of raw attack power. But there was another reason they were truly troublesome.

They didn’t charge straight ahead. They boasted fast, erratic mobility, springing off thick tree trunks or hiding themselves in bushes before suddenly leaping out.

Clang! Bang!

One of the wolves’ forelegs was deflected by the shield swung by the party leader. But the beast twisted its body in midair, landed, and immediately slipped into the damage dealer’s blind spot.

“Damn, why are they so fast?!”

The damage dealer swung his sword frantically, but it only cut through empty air. With the dynamic vision of an ordinary D-rank Hunter, it was difficult enough just to follow the wolves’ zigzagging trajectories.

The two front-line Hunters desperately swung their weapons, focusing on keeping the attention of the two wolves in front. They had to pin them down somehow before they could land magic or ranged attacks.

“Healer! Fall back!”

At that moment, the remaining wolf nimbly circled around the front line. It had taken advantage of the moment when the front-line fighters were distracted by the other two.

The wolf’s gaze, having rapidly circled around the flank, turned toward Chaeho and the healer guarding the rear.

“Shit! The rear’s been breached!”

The party leader belatedly turned his head in shock. But the distance was already too great. The wolf was simply too fast for them to reach Chaeho in time.

Crunch!

The wolf scraped its claws against the ground and charged ferociously.

The predator closed the distance at such incredible speed that it left an afterimage. The healer couldn’t even scream before collapsing to the ground.

Three meters.

Two meters.

Seeing the wolf that had reached right before their eyes in an instant, the other party members squeezed their eyes shut.

For a D-rank Hunter, taking on that kind of speed head-on was practically impossible.

But Chaeho stood his ground without the slightest hint of panic.

He didn’t activate his skill recklessly.

There was no reason to waste his precious daily usage time.

Chaeho adjusted his grip on his sword and calmly fixed his gaze on the wolf. Using nothing but his natural dynamic vision, he tracked the wolf’s erratic trajectory all the way to the end.

As he concentrated so intensely that his eyes began to ache, he could see the rhythm of the beast’s muscles contracting and expanding.

Now.

The wolf had closed the distance completely. It loaded all its strength into its hind legs, preparing to tear into Chaeho’s neck.

At the decisive instant when it kicked violently off the ground and leaped into the air—

A quiet switch flipped inside Chaeho’s mind.

Time Slow.

In an instant, the shouts of his party members and the wolf’s breathing pounding against his ears stretched out like taffy.

The wolf that had leaped into the air moved as slowly as if it were submerged underwater.

Chaeho’s eyes moved rapidly.

The angle at which the airborne monster’s four legs were pointing.

The taut muscles in its neck.

The center of gravity resting on its forelegs.

All the information poured into Chaeho’s mind at once.

It’s airborne. It can’t change its trajectory anymore.

A leap was a powerful weapon, but once its feet left the ground, it came with the fatal weakness of being unable to change direction.

Chaeho calculated the wolf’s exact landing point.

Once he confirmed the pattern, he immediately deactivated the skill without wasting any more time.

He had used it for barely 0.1 seconds.

The world returned to its normal speed.

The wolf’s sharp fangs, slicing through the air, rushed toward the tip of Chaeho’s nose.

Chaeho didn’t retreat.

Instead, he stepped half a pace forward toward the point where the wolf would land.

At the same time, he firmly raised the sword that had been hanging at his waist.

It looked less like Chaeho had thrust his sword and more like the wolf had flown straight into the tip of his blade on its own.

Thud!

“……!”

The wolf couldn’t even let out a dying cry.

Chaeho’s blade pierced beneath its jaw and straight through the vital area below its neck in one clean motion.

The momentum of its tremendous charge had become the poison that took its own life.

The wolf’s impaled body lightly struck Chaeho’s shoulder before crashing to the ground.

Splat.

The stench of blood rushed into the air.

The wolf rolled across the ground, kicked its legs a couple of times, and then went limp.

Chaeho casually shook the blood from his sword.

There wasn’t a trace of unnecessary force in the movement. It was exceptionally clean and concise.

“Gasp…”

The healer, who had collapsed onto the ground, sucked in a breath.

The party leader, still gripping his shield at the front, also stared blankly at Chaeho.

He couldn’t understand what had just happened.

Had that Hunter really read the trajectory of a wolf flying toward him at that speed, stepped half a pace forward, and countered it?

A D-rank Hunter?

“Hunter Lee Chaeho. That just now…”

The party leader was just about to stammer out his question when—

“Graaagh!”

One of the remaining Blade Wolves, still rampaging at the front, roared in response to the death of its kind.

It stomped on the party leader’s shield, leaped high into the air, changed direction, and charged toward Chaeho.

“Watch out! It’s coming again!”

The damage dealer shouted urgently.

But Chaeho’s gaze didn’t waver.

If anything, he looked even more relaxed than before.

Through the first exchange, he had completely read the Blade Wolf’s characteristic leap timing and momentum patterns.

The angles at which they bounced off terrain.

Even the degree to which their knees bent when pushing off the ground.

He had memorized all of it.

Chaeho lowered his sword diagonally toward the approaching second wolf.

Swish.

The wolf slid across the ground and stepped on the base of a tree before leaping high once again.

The exact same pattern as before.

Time Slow.

A momentary activation.

The world slowed once again.

But this time, there was no need to observe it for as long as he had with the first wolf.

It was practically a question for which he already knew the answer.

Chaeho checked only the angle at which the wolf’s chin tilted slightly upward, then immediately deactivated the skill.

The skill had been active for less than half as long as before.

The instant its speed returned to normal, Chaeho’s body blurred like an afterimage.

He tilted his head slightly, avoiding the wolf’s incoming foreleg.

As the cold claws grazed past his cheek, Chaeho’s arm moved with a simple, efficient motion.

Slash.

The sound of flesh tearing and bone splitting rang through the forest.

Chaeho’s sword dug into the thinnest part of the wolf’s side and precisely tore through the area around its heart.

“Yelp!”

The wolf cried out and tumbled across the dirt.

Having suffered a fatal wound while moving at full speed, the beast rolled several more meters before foaming at the mouth and going rigid.

There had been no hesitation from beginning to end.

Even against an enemy that used its most troublesome weapon—speed—he hadn’t been swept up in its momentum.

Instead, he had chosen to exploit the enemy’s speed to minimize his own effort.

The party members could only stand frozen as they watched.

Chaeho lowered his sword and caught his breath.

I can definitely see it. I’m getting used to this.

The ability to control his power only at the most decisive moments.

That was what allowed him to draw out extreme efficiency.

Watch with his eyes.

Find the pattern.

Then, at the moment he became certain, intervene for only a brief instant and end the situation.

Chaeho quietly smiled at the fighting style that was gradually becoming ingrained in his body.

“Let’s take care of the last one.”

Chaeho turned his head toward the front line.

Only then did the party leader and damage dealer, who had been standing there blankly, snap back to their senses and point their weapons at the remaining wolf.

Having watched two of its companions get cut down in an instant, the last wolf was already cowed, its tail tucked between its legs.

“Uh, uh… Hey, damage dealer! Block the right!”

The party leader hurriedly raised his shield.

The flow of the battle had already completely shifted.

Before long, the last wolf fell to the damage dealer’s sword.

The forest fell silent again once the battle ended.

Only their rough breathing and the stench of monster blood remained as evidence that a battle had taken place here moments ago.

“Hoo…”

The party leader lowered his shield to the ground and wiped the sweat from his face.

Then he approached the healer, who was still sitting on the ground.

“Are you all right? You weren’t injured, were you?”

“Yes… I’m fine, but…”

The healer rose with trembling hands and stole a glance at Chaeho.

The other party members’ gazes also turned toward Chaeho as if on cue.

Chaeho was quietly extracting the magic stones from the fallen wolves with a dagger and organizing the spoils.

“Hunter Lee Chaeho.”

The party leader cautiously approached and spoke.

“Yes.”

Chaeho answered without lifting his head.

“That thing you did earlier… How did you do it? The wolf was flying through the air, but you didn’t even dodge. You actually stepped forward.”

There was unmistakable awe in his voice.

Chaeho casually wiped the blood from his dagger with a cloth before answering matter-of-factly.

“When it’s airborne, it can’t change direction. I figured I could catch it as long as I matched the spot where it would land.”

“You matched where it would land? While it was flying at you that fast?”

“I got a little lucky. Their movements are pretty straightforward.”

Straightforward?

These were monsters that had been bouncing in every direction and nearly driven the party members out of their minds.

The party leader and damage dealer exchanged glances, unable to find the words.

“It’s hard to call it luck when you took down the second one much faster and more cleanly than the first. Honestly, I couldn’t even see the trajectory of your sword.”

The damage dealer clicked his tongue in amazement.

“Are you really a D-rank Hunter? You aren’t some guy from a top guild pretending to be weak, are you?”

“My résumé said D-rank, didn’t it?”

Chaeho answered lightly as he gathered the magic stones and stood up.

There wasn’t the slightest hint in his attitude that he was showing off or seeking praise.

He simply looked calm, as though he had merely done what needed to be done.

“Check your weapons for any damage. We still have some distance to cover before we reach the deeper section.”

Chaeho glanced around as he spoke.

The party leader was supposed to be the one giving orders, but somehow, the center of the party had completely shifted to Chaeho.

“Ah, yes. Everyone, check your equipment and let’s move immediately!”

The party leader hurriedly raised his voice and reorganized the formation.

Chaeho returned to the very back and surveyed the surrounding bushes.

I can reduce the time even further.

The sensation he had felt when taking down the second wolf was still lingering in his fingertips.

Keeping the skill active for a long time and slowing the world down was certainly safer.

But it was an inefficient method that consumed his limited resource.

See with his eyes.

Predict with his brain.

Let his body react.

Then insert the skill into that flow for an extremely brief moment—just 0.1 seconds or less.

That alone allowed him to strike the vital point of a monster that should have been impossible for a D-rank body to catch.

Having repeatedly confirmed in actual combat that his judgment was correct, Chaeho lightly tightened his grip around his sword hilt.

The deeper they went into the forest, the more sinister the atmosphere of the dungeon became.

No sunlight reached this place at all, and the moss covering the ground was slick, making it easy to lose one’s footing.

“Watch your step. You’ll twist your ankle.”

Chaeho lightly grabbed the arm of the healer who had fallen behind and warned her.

“Thank you…”

The healer answered softly, her face turning red.

The party leader walking at the front stopped and raised his hand.

“There’s a mana reaction ahead. I think we’re near the boss room.”

Tension spread across the party members’ faces.

If the regular monsters had been Blade Wolves, then the boss was bound to be even faster and more lethal.

“Let’s enter slowly while maintaining formation. Hunter Lee Chaeho, I’d appreciate it if you could keep a solid watch on the rear.”

The party leader turned around and politely asked him.

It was different from the rigid instructions he had given when they first entered the dungeon.

Now, his tone was that of someone entrusting the rear to Chaeho completely.

“I’ll do what I need to do.”

Chaeho gave a short answer and turned his gaze forward.

With each successive battle, his body was becoming lighter.

The sensation of using his skill in short bursts was becoming completely natural to him.

No matter what variables appeared, he felt that he could handle them without difficulty with this newfound sense.

Chaeho quietly flicked his thumb against the sword resting in its sheath.

Click.

With the faint sound of friction, the blade slid out.

Faster, and shorter.

Chaeho muttered the words inwardly as he watched the movements of the front-line fighters preparing to enter first.

“Let’s go.”

At his brief words, the front-line fighters tightened their grips on their weapons and stepped into the darkness first.

The healer followed, and Chaeho entered last.

A heavy beast’s breathing rushed out from deeper inside the boss room.

Chaeho didn’t stop walking.

The moment a massive shadow swayed across his field of vision, the tip of his sword quietly lowered toward the ground.